Malo Gusto has been pictured back in Chelsea training today as the squad returned from a few days off to start to build up to next Monday’s game against Everton.
This was to be expected – while he was left out of the squad which travelled to face Sheffield United at the weekend, this was precautionary rather than a reaction to injury. After a punishing schedule for the France international, a break was necessary. With Reece James out practically all season, Gusto has had to play far more minutes than is healthy and there had to be a sacrifice at some point. It made sense to make it in a game we should have been winning easily, even without our two best right sided defenders around.
A renewed vigour
We fully supported the decision to rest Gusto for that game, although it did end up costing us potentially two points. In a game against the most catastrophically poor defences in the league, Gusto would have had a field day tearing up and down the right side.
In his place, Axel Disasi, a centre back playing out of position, provided nothing in attack, and the frustrations of players like Cole Palmer at the lack of progress down that side was made clear by their reactions in the game.
Still, we paid the price, but we now hopefully get the benefit of a rested Gusto in our upcoming games. He will be expected to play almost minute from here on out, with James not expected back for some time.
